Category: Retreat Logistics

When Push Comes to Shotgun: Survival in the Suburbs, by Michael K.

To anyone who swatches the news or opens up an internet browser from time to time, it’s exceedingly clear that the world is becoming an extremely dangerous place.  From the abstract threats such as global economic collapse or pandemic to the more concrete ideas of natural catastrophes, terrorist attacks and the like, it’s obvious that preparedness isn’t just something to think about occasionally, it’s an absolute necessity.  Yet, with our feet firmly planted in the middle class, my wife and I don’t exactly have the money to go out and build the fortified bunker of our dreams for the day …


When You Don’t Know Where To Start, by Angela in Georgia

If you are like me, you want to start preparing for TEOTWAWKI, but you have no clue where or how to begin. Even the shortest list, and list of lists, is a daunting undertaking and the expenses can stack up quickly. We thought we’d be up a creek since we had no real extra money to set aside for this project. Alas, it doesn’t have to be that way! There are many things you probably have around the house that will help save or sustain life. You just have to learn to look at your possessions in a different way. …


Couponing for TEOTWAWKI, by Lynn A.

Our priorities have changed as a family and we have morphed very quickly into a completely different mindset like our very lives depend it and they may. A year ago, if you would have told me that I would be preparing for what we all know is on its way, I would have gotten a great laugh out of it. Not that we didn’t have an inkling, it was just easier to ignore the threat .  The more my husband and I began to sit up and pay attention to our nation, the reality of what is happening in this …


A Concentric Circle Preparedness Plan, by Second Hand Lion

As a professional project manager for a large international corporation, my position requires me to mitigate the risks of unknown variables that can alter the success of large and small projects. Donald Rumsfeld quote that ‘we don’t know what we don’t know” comes to mind. It is my job to insulate our company from cost overruns, time delays, or catastrophic project failure by identifying those variables and reducing their impact. These principles of project management applied to small personal events to those effecting us globally has led me to recognize some concerning trends in the preparedness community. My observations have …


Prepping: A Nickel, A Dime, a Dollar at a Time, by, T.J.

Many years ago, when I was a young teen, I started a hope chest. My grandmother had taught me about having a hope chest during the depression. She said that as a young girl, living in hard times, the only hope she had of having a dowry was her hope chest. So she embroidered on used pillow cases to make them seem nice, and even special. She learned to darn old tablecloths and repair small tears and holes, and she would put these in her hope chest. Small things really, and admittedly, not necessary, but things to make her future …


Letter Re: Sport Shooting for Preppers

As C.K.’s article points out almost all of the publications that cover prepping acknowledge the need for self-defense, but very little ink gets spent on developing or maintaining real proficiency.  His suggestion that readers consider either practical shooting (USPSA) or defensive pistol shooting (IDPA) really hits the target.  The follow-up letter by Sean from COS advocating hunting as another way to develop and maintain skills also hit the mark. Many articles and even most of the survival fiction stories provide descriptions and explanations for the “right” guns to buy.  “Survival Gun Selection” on the left side of survivalblog.com is an …


Letter Re: Praise For Zanotti Armor Modular Gun Vaults

James, First of all thank you for running SurvivalBlog as it is has been a valuable source of information. Years ago, you mentioned Zanotti Armor as a high quality gun safe company, I’m glad you did, as I am now a very happy customer! I ordered the ZA-3 6-foot–the largest safe available from the company–and it fits my needs perfectly. It only took two of us to move all the [modular] pieces to the basement and assemble the walls. It required two extra pair of hands to assemble the top and door. I ordered the safe in June and received …


Letter Re: Interim Retreat Caches

Jim: In How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It, you missed mentioning one of the great uses of “bypassed areas” — that of an en route cache.  There is no question but that it would be plain stupid for any family to wait to leave the big cities and urban areas until the very last moment when TSHTF, urban riots have broken out, and the freeways have become one big parking lot full of shooting and looting.  But many families will want to hang on in the cities as long as possible because of employment, family …


Letter Re: Barter, Post-TEOTWAWKI–An Update

Dear SurvivalBloggers: Please re-read my December 2011 article on “micro stores” following TEOTWAWKI. Pay particular attention to the proposed stocking list. Enough water has gone under the bridge since then–I’ve had plenty of time to think some more about it, plus I received some quality feedback from SurvivalBlog readers–that I thought some updating might be useful and in order. Here goes.   There were several premises I used as a basis for recommending your considering a “micro store”: Yes, the situation might get bad (less than comfortable)–but (IMO) will be something less than grim–following some sort of catastrophic “meltdown” event, especially if you live in a smaller, conservative metropolitan …


Prepping on $10 a Week, by S.W. Michigan Fred

Have you seen the latest reality television show, “Doomsday Preppers”, from National Geographic?  I made a mistake a few years ago – after 20 years of successfully resisting the cries and moans of my children, I gave in and allowed cable television to be installed in my house. Should have known better, but as they say, that’s a whole ‘nother subject.  Now, every week, National Geographic brings us “Doomsday Preppers,” Animal Planet serves up “Meet The Preppers,” Discovery beams in another episode of “Doomsday Bunkers” and the new pay-to-view internet network GBTV fires off a round of “American Preppers.”  Can …


Observations From a Rookie Prepper, by Silver

I am a rookie prepper, too bad for me. This underlying lump of fear of bad times coming has been residing in the pit of my stomach for a long time, ignored and deprived of the necessary attention it is well deserved of. Recently I have awakened to the call of cover your own ass or someone or something else will force me to become non-existent. So to heed the warning sign of government irresponsibility and bad times coming I let the monster of fear come to the surface, and so I have begun my journey of self-reliance. This is …


Prepping for Less and for the First Time Prepper, by Becky Bear

Recently, because of some significant financial changes in our life (including moving halfway across country, one of us unable to find work and the other getting laid off, and then getting a job at 50% of the previous salary) we are no longer able to invest as we done in the past. However, because we invested in prepping prior to our sudden reversal of fortune, what would normally happen in this type of financial emergency merely became a financial irritant. Even without 75% of our previous income, we are still able to live well and continue our prepping effort, if …


Letter Re: Made in America? — Maybe

Dear Mr. Rawles, My letter today was prompted by an email I received recently about UPC codes and country of origin.  It stated that one can determine the country of manufacturing origin by looking at the first three digits of the Bar code.  More specifically, it stated that bar codes beginning with the digits 690 through 695 are from China while those with 471 are from Taiwan.  Products with codes from 00 to 13 are from the U.S. and Canada.  This seemed like a handy way to tell which products came from where.  You could buy a product with some …


You May Not Get a Second Chance to Prepare, by Larry E.

I have been guilty for years of talking about preparing verses actually putting forth the effort and taking the necessary steps to prepare for my family.  I began my prep life back pre-2000 Y-2K bug times.  I began to read about the potential time bomb that was ticking as it pertained to the technology crash back in 1995.  I had subscribed to a homesteaders magazine called Countryside (highly recommended) and began to study what impending danger that our nation and world was faced with.  As did many, I did not want to face the facts that this could actually happen …


Post Collapse Barter: The Rest of the Story, by D.T.R.

Post collapse barter has been a hot topic for as long as I have been lurking around the Survival Community. Yet each time I read the offerings on the subject they have left me feeling like the whole story is not being told. This is an attempt to tell that story.   Post collapse barter is often presented in romanticized ways of a simpler and happier life such as depicted by Eddie Albert playing the role of the Persian peddler “Ali Hakim” in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma.” He went town to town peddling everything from perfume to frying …